Brilliant book of homoerotic photos. The first publication of a self-created portfolio by Swiss photographer Weinberger from the mid-1950s.
Commencing his career in the 1950s in Zurich as a self-taught photographer working under an alias for the seminal gay underground club and magazine Der Kreis, Karlheinz Weinberger (1921–2006) took candid shots of lovers, friends and strangers on the street and in his home studio with an overt erotic investment in his subjects. He developed a fixation with the working-class youth culture known as the “Halbstarke” (or “half strong”). Its members demonstrated their anti-establishment stance with heavily-embellished outfits of denim and leather, in an exaggerated homemade version of the American greaser style of the time. In his stark, posed photographs of these young rebels, Weinberger focuses on individual figures, exploring both a personal erotic obsession and the cultural symbolism of blue jeans, whose scarcity in post war Switzerland implied not just a fashion statement but a badge of pride.
Presentation House Gallery exhibited Karlheinz Weinberger's work in 2011 and published Jeans in collaboration with the Swiss Institute. This publication reproduces a rare portfolio of Weinberger's work that he designed in the mid-1950s. A beautifully printed book, presented like a photo album, which large-format photos every other page.
Hardcover, folio size with pictorial boards
112 pgs / 54 b&w illus.
50.8 x 40 cm
1st Edition 2011 by Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art, New York and Presentation House Gallery